#I couldn't pick which of cellbit felps and bagi grabbed forever so i just made him black out again oops

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Forever has been in the Nether... He doesn't know how long he's been there, to be honest. There's no day and no night, he just eats when he's hungry and digs out a hole to sleep in when he's tired. He fights monsters, he wanders, and he searches for the eggs - he lost Walter Bob some time ago, and hasn't seen a friendly being since.

So he wanders, and he wanders, and he wanders... Until there, at the entrance to a cave, he sees a small boy with a sword.

An egg, a child, not his own child, but one of them! Forever... Forever found Chayanne. And if Chayanne is here, surely the others cannot be far?

"Chayanne!" he calls, running closer. "Chayanne, are you okay? Are you hurt? Where is everyone?"

His response is a growl, and rocks being pelted at his knees. Some are sharp, one is especially heavy. Forever tries to approach, only to end up with tiny fists batting into his legs.

"Shit!"

Chayanne seems to have not a sword, but a knife. Maybe blades hidden between fingers; blood drips down Forever's leg.

"Fuck, shit, Chayanne, Chayanne, it's me, stop hitting!" He does his best to plead. "It's Forever!"

He's almost surprised when the repetitive pain stops. The little dragon egg, battered and dirty, stares at him a moment, before grabbing his hand.

"There we go, I-" Forever is cut off as Chayanne yanks him into a cave, down a tunnel, into lava-lit chasm.

He hears Tallulah before he sees her, choked up and wheezing breaths loud and struggling in the heat. Shit, shit, all the dust, all the fire… Her lungs are already weak…

Forever is scrambling for his backpack, looking for the inhalers Phil had forced on him when he first started babysitting. It had seemed excessive at the time, but here in the Nether… he isn't sure there are enough.

Chayanne sees what is in Forever's hand, however, and any doubt he still had seems to flee. Where he had been tugging him along before, Philza's son was now almost desperate in his pulling.

He finds Tallulah curled between three rocks, hidden from almost every angle, and choking on her own throat.

"Tallulah," he drops to his knees beside her, tugging her to sitting and putting her inhaler to her mouth. "Deep breath, Little One. Tio is here."

It takes her a moment, but she manages one breath, then another. She's crying now, tears quickly evaporating in the heat.

Her breath still catches.

He pulls the inhaler away, shakes it, tries again. It has to work, it has to, his Little Princess… It has to.

He ends up tossing the device to one side in frustration. Chayanne goes after it, panicked, until he sees another in Forever's hand.

Maybe… Maybe that one had just been used too much already? Maybe this one would work?

It has to - Forever wouldn't know how to cut her throat open well enough to not kill her/

One puff, two-

Tallulah falls limp against him.

"Tallulah!"

For a terrifying few seconds he thinks he has failed, that he was too late, only for her to squirm, burying her face in his chest. Her breathing is not quite even - if he listens hard, he can still hear a wheeze over the popping of the lava - but she is breathing.

Chayanne, nearby, grabs her hands and presses close.

Forever uses the reprieve to tear up some of the cleaner parts of his shirt. It's not a lot - it's barely anything - but he fashions it into a bandana, and helps the egg get it over her face.

She leans away just long enough to let him put it on, before pulling herself and Chayanne back into his chest. Soon enough his shirt is growing wet from not one but two spots.

"You're okay," Forever shakes as he holds both children tight. "Tio's here, you'll be okay now. We're okay, we're okay."

He rocks them both as he tries to convince himself that is true.

Tries to convince himself he cannot feel his own tears drying up on his cheeks.

Richas is still missing - Leo, Dapper, Pomme and Ramon too - bur for now, he clings to the eggs that are here, and tries to remember to breathe.

--- Forever doesn't find the next of the children - they find him. Or, well, Ramon does, barrelling around the corner in a manic dash. It's Chayanne who Ramon lays eyes on first, the boy finally getting some sleep. Before Forever can either intervene or be noticed, Ramon has shaken him awake.

"Ramon," Forever calls to the boy, already searching for potions and a notebook. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

Ramon snatches the book, quickly writing. Chayanne is trying to force food and water on the other boy, but it doesn't seem to be working. Instead he's brushed aside, the book thrust back to Forever.

"/Richarlyson fell down a hole/," the words catch in Forever's throat. "/His leg broke. Leo stayed, we need a rope to get him and I need the following."

Forever does not bother to read aloud the materials list. Most of it he has on him - he filled his bags, but did not empty them - so he hands a few stacks of each over to Ramon.

"Which way?" He tries not to let the panic seep into his voice.

Ramon points, Chayanne glances between the still sleeping Tallulah and the door.

"I'll go get them," Forever promises. "Ramon, start working on a new leg. Chayanne? I need you to protect Ramon and Tallulah."

He waits for the okay from both before setting off at a sprint. He doesn't want to leave them, three children alone, but the shelter he threw together for the night is reinforced. They can't stay longer than one night - Forever learnt that on his fourth day, just after he lost Walter Bob. The monsters just crowd around to jump you when you leave, and Forever has both more children to find, and parents to return these ones to.

Hopefully Ramon's direction is accurate.

Forever thinks of Richars scared, hurt, with only a surely panicking Leo for company - he runs faster. Faster than he should - he twists an ankle on a rock, throws a potion at it, keeps running.

It's further than he thought to the hole - Ramon must have been searching for some time, and Forever's heart clenches at the idea. He moves potions, water, ladders, and food close to hand.

And then he spots the monster. Just the one ghast, but Leo is fighting it alone, and she has been pushed perilously close to the edge.

Without even considering he runs forward, taking the next hit for her.

The one after he deflects, and the stupid thing goes down.

"Leo!" He grabs the child as he calls to her, still a little wild with adrenaline. "Are you hurt?"

Leo shakes her head, but points desperately at the crevasse.

Forever gives her a potion, a slice of toast, and a water bucket. She near pushes him from the ledge in response.

In the end, laddering down proves too time consuming. Forever wants - needs - his son back in his arms. Safe, protected, okay. So he jumps from the ladder he was building, and lets himself fall a little way. Only once he can see Richarlyson does he open the paraglider, swooping down beside him.

Before he can think, or look, or assess, Forever throws a splash potion at his son, then scoops him into his arms.

"Richars?" He calls. "I'm here, I'm here."

He kisses the top of his head, and finally brings himself to look around. It seems not just a fall but a rockslide - pebbles and rubble are all around. Forever checks Richars over properly; shaken, terrified, thirsty, but the potion has fixed any injuries. If he fell with the rocks, not onto them, perhaps they prevented him from gathering too much speed...

Nothing lost but his prosthetic, detached from his leg and crushed under a boulder. There's a little blood on the clasp and, while the injuries are healed already, he can only imagine his boy scrabbling against rocks, clinging, grasping, desperate even as the skin tears and he falls-

Forever hugs his son, holds him close, and pretends for the moment it will all be okay.

But only for a moment; there are much worse things than ghasts in this Nether. Leo waits for them alone up top, and the other three eggs hidden in the little night bunker he made them.

"Richars?" Forever says. "I'm going to get us out of here. But I need you to hold tight, okay? Really, really tight. Even if your fingers hurt, do not let go."

Richarlyson nods and for once does as he's told, clinging to Forever with all his might. With one arm Forever clings back.

With the other he pulls out his grappling squawk, and gets them back up to Leo.

Leo, who has put on a very brave face, but is a little too still in her terror.

Forever is not willing to let go of Richarlyson, not yet. Instead he just shifts him to a better position, gives him some water to sip on as they walk, and the offers his free hand to Leo.

She takes it, and she clings.

Their walk back is accompanied by the hissing of lava, the grunt of mobs, and Forever's own words as he attempts to soothe the children. Richars hides in the remains of his jacket, while Leo grasps both his sword and his hand and hisses back at any threat.

He hates to see the children so terrified but this is why he's here, no? To get them home and safe and loved, loved so much.

When they reach the shelter, Tallulah is awake again. She is sat with Ramon, watching him work, while Chayanne stands at the doorway, sword drawn.

Leo opens the door, and swords clash for a moment before Leo is pulled into a hug. Forever squeezes in behind them, locking the door as he goes. Adrenaline fading he sits heavily against the wall, and shifts Richars to be cradled against his chest.

Richars might want his siblings, but Forever cannot let go - not now, not yet.

Despite Forever's best efforts, nobody sleeps that night.

---

The leg Ramon makes for Richarlyson is ugly and heavy, brass and iron beaten into shape in the heat of the Nether, and then doused in some of their limited water. Forever is pretty sure that it is uncomfortable - Richars favours his flesh leg in a way he never has before - but he can run on it, and right now that is all that matters.

It leaves Forever's arms free. One for a weapon, the other to carry a child. They take it in turns to be carried across the hellscape - Tallulah most often, her lungs continuing to struggle in the ash and the heat - only stopping when Forever himself is too tired to go on.

With five children he sneaks, not attacks, keeping to ledges and overhangs and away from danger. Each is given golden boots just in case of piglins, but Forever has seen nothing that normal in... In however long he's been here.

There's no day or night in the Nether. Walter Bob might know, but Forever has not seen Walter Bob again in a long time.

Water and food is passed around intermittently, and Forever only hopes there is enough of it.

Forever is lost, the only adult protecting five beautiful, terrified children. But, two of them are still missing, so why try finding the way home when this is what they have?

---

Sneaking is not eternally viable, however.

When Forever first sees the distracted hoard of monsters, his first thought is that he is very glad they are distracted and so not looking for him. His second, with significantly more swearing, is that he recognises what they are distracted by.

Between the limbs of the beasts, in the distance, he can just make out the shine of a scythe. He looks between the monsters, the five children with him, and the child - maybe children - being attacked, and he doesn't know what to do.

But... But Chayanne is already bolting forwards to protect, Leo not far behind, and it's all he can do to grab the other three children. He hands them potions of healing and invisibility and orders them to hide and knowing they will not listen he chases after the other two.

The fight is brutal, intense. He knows the eggs are competent, but its terrifying to watch them fight even so. Forever takes hits he should never have taken, desperate to keep the claws and the fire from the children at his side.

He orders them to run.

They do not listen.

A potato slams into a monster's face, and Forever knows he has lost all control of the situation.

Another cut, another slice, throwing a potion at Leo after she misses a flying kick at a monster's head. The miss does not deter her, swinging up and around and stabbing it through the eyes.

No children should fight like this.

They do anyway.

Forever barely notices when Dapper goes down, too busy keeping an eye on the five he can fully see. It's Ramon's potato gun stopping that he notices first; he turns to look at the boy, gets a claw across his back for his efforts, and notices where he has frozen and is looking.

Dapper's scythe has stopped moving, and between the feet Forever can see blood on the floor.

This time he doesn't freeze; he charges. He still screams when he is hit, screams until his throat is raw, but he doesn't stop or even slow. The eggs are smaller, get there faster, are already making do.

Tallulah, dressed like a bandit with the makeshift bandana over her face holds a knife - two handed - infront of her, while Richars and Ramon throws potion at not only Dapper but also Pomme.

Now he looks and sees, it seems Dapper went down first, and it was Pomme they saw fighting, just having stolen the other egg's weapon after her own shattered.

Forever trusts the eggs to help each other up - he has to - as he turns once more, shielding them from the onslaught with his flesh and his weapons. Chayanne and Leo make it over at some point, covering his sides as they fend off the hoard.

In the end, it isn't quite enough; Forever stands his ground, and orders the children to run.

He hopes they do so, he really does, because the next thing he knows a giant blue fist slams into his face.

---

Forever wakes up to Richars in his arms, and Chayanne crouching at his face. It is quiet now - as quiet as the Nether ever is.

He sits - far too quickly - and makes a count.

Chayanne and Richars, Tallulah and Pomme and Leo huddled up, Dapper at his feet and Ramon behind him. Seven, seven eggs, all seven living children are here and at his side.

It takes him a moment, but he opens his arms.

Six more pairs of arms cling to him and Forever thinks fuck, literally anyone else would have done better at this.

---

Briefly Forever considers looking for Walter Bob, but with seven children and no lead... He needs to get to the portal. Walter Bob is an adult, the eggs... The eggs are not.

The eggs are children, hungry, hurting children, desperate for their parents and Forever cannot blame them. His vision is still a little blurred from the blow to his head, and his back smarts where claws dragged across it, but... But so long as he gets the eggs home, what does he matter?

He does his best to look uninjured and competent, but from the way even Richars refuses to be carried any more he suspects that he fails.

It's a miracle that they make it to the portal, really.

The portal, the light turned out, and with more hunting monsters on the horizon.

Forever would like to cry.

Forever does cry, but he also grabs obsidian and a flint and steel, and does his best to force it back together.

It works, sort of - the portal turns on for a few seconds, but splutters and dies.

Forever... Forever doesn't know what to do.

Chayanne makes the decision for him, going and standing in the obsidian, and looking back.

Forever gets the idea - send some of the more combat ready eggs first, just in case it isn't home, and hope they all end up in the same place.

He hates it, he hates it so much, but they are out of potions and out of water and the only food left is four slices of avocado toast, so he nods to the plan, and lights the portal again.

Chayanne goes... somewhere.

It worked, it works, for a value of work.

Shakily, hurriedly, Forever directs the eggs to stand in the portal in turn; Pomme second, Ramon and Dapper and Leo all together, Tallulah and Richars...

By then the monsters have reached Forever and he thinks, if he dies there, it won't be so bad.

Except Richarlyson might cry.

His body will barely hold him any more - all the food went to the children, after all - but he drags himself to the portal, and strikes flint on steel.

The flint shatters in his hand, and the portal lights.

---

Even as he flickers through the portal, Forever's legs collapse. It is to his surprise, then, when strong arms catch him, and hold up his weight. He blinks, and tries to focus, and clings to the shoulder of someone far too tall to be an egg.

He sees Pac, sat on the floor of the Order's Nether Portal Room, Richarlyson bundled in his lap and looking at Forever with concern and terror in his eyes. Fit sits next to him, fussing over Ramon.

BadBoyHalo and the French huddled around Dapper and Pomme, the children safely trapped within. Bad looks terrible - worse than before - and calls over something Forever does not quite understand.

Foolish has Leo on his shoulders, standing near a red sharestone and saluting Forever with one hand. Vegetta, so often missing Vegetta, stands behind them, making sure Leo does not fall.

Tubbo and Missa with Chayanne and Tallulah and a man Forever doesn't recognise, but his beanie matches Tallulah's and she sobs in his arms and so maybe Forever can guess. He briefly wonders where Philza is, until he hears the swipe of a Scythe cutting through a zombie piglin, and the shattering of a portal.

He tries to work out who is holding him, but turning his head makes the pain spike. He cannot help but yell as his knees give in, and he blinks.

When his eyes open, his head is on Felps' lap. The Brazilians are also gathered around him, a physical shield from the panic still going on all around. There's a hole where Mike should be, and through it he can hear the sounds of the other parents comforting their eggs.

He should be comforting Richarlyson, instead he is spread out and on the ground.

Seeing him awake, Bagi and Felps help him sit up, while Pac passes him water and Cellbit rocks Richarlyson, Roier at his side. Forever sips on the water, nearly chokes, and sips again. It's followed by a potion, and dry toast, and his family bundling around. Beyond the cocoon he can hear quiet talking, but it doesn't really matter. Nobody is panicking, nobody is upset - there's some crying, but its quiet, not desperate.

Forever lets himself slump, forcing Felps to take his entire weight. There's a little panic from the huddle, but he just leans over to busy his face in Pac's side.

"Can I sleep now?" is all he asks.

And he doesn't wait for a reply.